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30 years ago today

Posted on July 21, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This is an almost Wordless Wednesday for a special reason. Thirty years ago today, I was getting ready to become a big sister. Thirty years ago tomorrow, my mother went into the hospital to have my little brother. I have to admit, I asked for a little sister, but got my amazing younger, but taller brother instead.

I am the luckiest sister in the world to have my brother. Sure, he used to be a pain in the rear (wait, he still can be – Hmmmm….), but we have both ~~matured~~ grown up a lot. He has always been there for me, spoiled my boys rotten, married an amazing woman and had two gorgeous children.

Wishing my brother an extra special 30th Birthday tomorrow. Love and miss you little brother.

Categories:
birthday family photos Wordless Wednesday

Beach or pool – that is the question

Posted on July 19, 2010 10:45 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday, we spent the day at Saratoga Lake with family. Here are some of the people we saw at the lake:

The boys were in their swimsuits and we all had sun lotion on so we could go right to the boat when we arrived. We had a wonderful time on the boat. There is just nothing like roaming around the lake, getting sprayed with water and laughing with family.

These are just a few of the photos that I took on the fly with my cell phone. TechyDad and I took many more with his camera. I will be sharing some of those later.

After several hours on the boat, we went back to dock and decided to take the boys to the beach to play in the sand and go in the lake. Let me preface this with the fact that I am NOT a beach person. There are many reasons. Here are a few:

I am really pale (see photo below). Pale + red hair = easily burns in the sun even with mega sun screen. This happened over and over in Hawaii and throughout my life. TechyDad saw that I burned within 30 minutes of arriving at Blizzard Beach at Disney World on our honeymoon (I was crispy fried). Luckily, sun screen these days is a lot better, but I still do not like to tempt fate.
Not a huge fan of sand. Sure it can be fun to play with, but it gets into your toes, all over your body and into places within your swimsuit that it should not. Enough said!
Like swimming in clean water. You know without rocks, shells, fish, seaweed in my feet. I guess I was spoiled growing up with my Nana and Papa’s pool.

Those really are the two biggest reasons in my mind. I know they are silly. I am a good sport and will go hang out on the beach with the kids and TechyDad. We did this for a little while yesterday. While the little guy was busy doing this:

I was sitting off to the side snapping away photos of the boys kicking back like this:

More of those pictures from the boat and beach coming later, I need to get them from JL and his camera.

So are you a beach person or more of a pool kinda gal/guy? Just curious to see if other people have reasons for one or the other.

Categories:
family fun jl jsl me moments nhl photos summer weekend

A cherry picking family record

Posted on July 12, 2010 8:51 pm by TheAngelForever

If you have never been cherry picking, I urge you to go. Even if you are not a fan of cherries, the experience is well worth it. Two years ago, we went cherry picking with my brother and his family. When we tried to go last year, it did not work out. The crop was late and we were out of luck. This year, we watched carefully and planned the weekend to go.

Two years ago, we had four adults, an almost five year old, just one year old and 10 month old with us. This time we had six adults (Nana and Papa joined us), an almost seven year old, just three year old, almost three year old and four and a half month old. Having two extra adults was a blessing. This year, we went to a new pick your own cherry location called Singer Farms. Our first impression was not the best thanks to too many people swarming and too little parking. After we got over trying to find a spot in weeds that were taller than our little car, we got situated. JSL was sleeping after the pre-cherry picking fiasco and so was the baby. Everyone else went over to get buckets to collect cherries.

When we got to the orchard, it was amazing. The trees were overloaded with tons of cherries. For as far as the eye could see, there were trees filled with different types of cherries. We stuck with the sweet cherries. As we were getting settled, JSL woke up and joined the picking crew. Nana helped the little kids some, but was also in charge of pushing sleeping BA around in his stroller.

The cherries were absolutely amazing. Each time we were ready to stop, more sucked us in. It was like ADD of the cherry kind "Oh look . . . pretty cherry!" Finally, after just under an hour, we decided that we had more than enough to feed all of us and many others. We carried our precious cargo back to get weighed so we could pay for them.

We mainly picked two kinds of sweet cherries. One was similar to a bing (or may have been) and the other looked like a rainer cherry. Those were definitely a fan favorite. They have a yellow hue to them and when you bite inside the flesh is light colored. The interesting part, they taste like a peach – without the annoying fuzz outside.

If you read my Tweets from our adventure, you know how many pounds we had. If not, what do you think?

I will end the suspense. We picked 33 pounds of cherry goodness. That beat our record of just over 22 pounds! We ate a lot of them Saturday throughout the day and Sunday morning. Then, we divided them up. We took about half of them home to share with others. Tonight, when the kids are in bed, there is a bowl of cherries with my name on it!

Thank you to Uncle I, Aunt M, Nana, Papa, SG and my boys for a wonderful experience with my extended family.

Categories:
cousins family food glorious food fun interesting jl jsl nhl photos road trip summer weekend yummy

Cousins, museum, cherries, pirates and more

Posted on July 11, 2010 11:11 pm by TheAngelForever

This weekend, I was a little busy. Thursday night, we went to visit my brother and his family out in western NY. We arrived rather late that night and my niece SG was sleeping. Thanks to this, the kids saw her at breakfast the next morning. Here, they bonded over cereal while we planned what to do on the rainy day since cherry picking was out.

We eventually made our way to the Buffalo Museum of Science. They had a new dinosaur exhibit that we thought the kids would love. Here is a preview of our time there:

When we got home, it was time for Uncle I to go to work for a little while. The kids played and even baby BA enjoyed tummy time fun with a little help from the bigger kids.

Saturday morning, Nana and Papa came to join us. As we started our journey to the cherry picking place, we had to stop and go back home. JSL decided to add some fun and excitement to the day. He was drinking water, started to gag – and well let’s just say he needed a change of clothing. We made our way to the cherry orchard and all you could see were trees chock full of cherries of all kinds. They were gorgeous. Before we knew it, we had picked a LOT of cherries. More about that coming soon. Here are a few photos of the cherry picking group and our delicious finds.

After this, we wandered at a Pirate Festival by Lake Ontario.

The views were gorgeous and the kids even enjoyed looking at the water below.

Once we had lunch, we wandered back to the house. The kids played outside for a while, we all had dinner and then it was time for bed. Sunday, we stayed until after lunch and then it was time to head home. It really was sad to say goodbye to Uncle I, Aunt M, SG and BA. We had a wonderful weekend with my brother and his family. The kids had so much fun together we can not wait to see them again.

Categories:
cousins family food glorious food jsl nhl photos road trip weekend yummy

Picking fresh fruit

Posted on July 9, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

During the summer, we often think about going to pick fruit in fields to eat fresh. My family does this since it is a great activity that we can all do together and have fun. My favorite is definitely cherry picking. While visiting my brother and his family we found a place that has mini-cherry trees that were perfect for picking.

When we were finished, we had over 22 pounds of cherries! Seems like a lot, but they were oh so delicious and managed to get eaten up by all of us and others that we gave them to.

This year, we had hoped to get to strawberry picking, but other commitments did not allow for this. We have done it in the past.

Although I love strawberries, I am not a huge fan of picking them. Do not like getting down into the dirt with the bugs. It is also harder for the kids to grab them since they are so easy to squish.

Fun in the fruit fields is not limited to the summer, we also enjoy apple picking in the fall. This past year, we went apple picking for the first time with the boys and had a wonderful adventure.

When we were finished, we had over 35 pounds of apples to eat, share, bake and make into different items.

With any luck, we should be going cherry picking again soon. Can not wait to see how the little kids do this time since they were in strollers on the last trip. This week’s question is inspired by all of the fruit picking adventures:

Do you go fruit picking with your family? If you do, what is your favorite item to get? If you have never gone, what do you wish you could go to pick fresh from the field?

BTW – Be sure to stop by and enter my Simply Go-Gurt Giveaway pack that ends on 7/14.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.